The thought of losing one of my precious pets makes me a little nauseous.
In fact, some might say I'm a little on the neurotic side of that issue. I'm constantly making sure gates are shut and locked. And doors to the house are properly closed, you get the idea.
We recently had some work done at our home that required a construction crew to be here for several days. I went outside and explained to them that we have animals – 4 dogs and one giant Sulcata tortoise with a mind of her own. I told them they needed to shut the gates behind themselves every single time they came through them.
I warned them our tort can be sneaky. She mostly lives underground in the winter but occasionally she comes upstairs and you might trip right over that rock!
The construction crew completely understood and agreed all gates would be shut. Guess what happened?! THEY DIDN'T SHUT THE GATES EVERY TIME!!! So I spent every day going behind them shutting the gates and reminding them. And then stressing out until I saw that giant dinosaur of a tortoise that we have was still safely in our yard.
The workers are gone now. I am thankful that no one was lost. But I also knew enough to not let my dogs outside because I couldn't trust that the gates would be shut. I guess the point here is – accidents happen. Dogs (and tortoises) get out of opened gates. It's so important to keep them safe. ID tags are critical to helping your pets get home. While we can't exactly ID tag our tort – we certainly can ID our dogs and cats!
Here are some startling statistics
According to the ASPCA website:
Approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats.
This blog gives startling missing and lost pet statistics such as:
- Approximately 1.5 million pets lost are euthanized at shelters annually.
- Information for about 35.4% of microchipped pets entering shelters was inaccurate, preventing a reunion with their owners.
- Pet recovery often depends on the animal wearing identification, with dogs coming in at 48% and cats at only 19%.
So the moral to this story is keep up-to-date information on your pets. (Well, the pets you can!) Accidents happen to even the most conscientious pet owners.
Make sure your dogs and cats have proper ID with your phone number listed. Also make sure their chip information is accurate in case somehow, your pet’s collar goes missing too.